This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Applications No. 2000-169211, filed Jun. 6, 2000; and No. 2001-123157, filed Apr. 20, 2001, the entire contents of both of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to a printed material with a railway route chart printed thereon as an optically readable coded image by which sound and other various data can be reproduced, an information presenting method utilizing the printed material, an information presentation system utilizing the printed material, an information resource utilized for presenting information, and a ticket issuing method utilizing the printed material.
The printed material shown in FIG. 1 has heretofore been seen in a timetable, notebook, and other various publications, a toy, and the like.
That is, printed in the printed material shown in FIG. 1 is a railway route chart 203 including: a station indication 201 shown by a circle, square or another predetermined symbol or pattern; and a railway route indication 202 disposed between the station indications 201 and indicated by a predetermined symbol or linear pattern.
However, for such printed material, a picture, patterns, characters and other visually recognizable ordinary image information can be obtained from a sheet surface with the railway route chart printed thereon, but sound information and various other types of detailed information cannot easily be obtained.
That is, for example, a user cannot directly obtain an announcement sound for loudly reading a name of a station, an announcement sound of transfer to another route from the station, and various other sound information concerning railway and filled with a live feeling from a sheet surface with the railway route chart printed thereon.
Moreover, it has been difficult to directly obtain a timetable, required time, fare, and the like of a train running on a certain railway route from the railway route chart.
From such point of view, a printed material with a railway route chart printed thereon from which various sound and other detailed information about railway can easily be obtained has been desired in the market. Furthermore, a railway route chart full of much interest, fun and idea has also been desired.
However, there has been no example in which a technique of reading a coded image by manual scanning as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,896,403 is applied to a manufacturing method of a printed material with a railway route chart for presenting sound and other information printed thereon.
The present invention has been developed in consideration of the aforementioned problem, and an object thereof is to provide a printed material on which a railway route chart including an optically readable coded image obtained by coding/processing sound and other information concerning railway is printed. The object of the present invention is also to provide an information presenting method utilizing the printed material, information presentation system utilizing the printed material, information resource utilized for presenting the information, and further, a ticket issuing method utilizing the printed material.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printed material with a railway route chart printed thereon, comprising:
a portion with the railway route chart printed thereon, including a station indication indicated by at least one of a predetermined symbol and a predetermined pattern, and a railway route indication disposed between the station indications and indicated by at least one of a predetermined symbol and a predetermined pattern; and
an optically readable coded image printed on either one of the station indication and the railway route indication and obtained by coding and processing a sound about railway.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printed material with a railway route chart printed thereon, comprising:
a portion with the railway route chart printed thereon, including a station indication indicated by at least one of a predetermined symbol and a predetermined pattern, and a railway route indication disposed between the station indications and indicated by at least one of a predetermined symbol and a predetermined pattern; and
an optically readable coded image printed on either one of the station indication and the railway route indication and obtained by coding and processing information corresponding to either one of a station and a railway route.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information presenting method comprising steps of:
optically reading a coded image by a reading apparatus from a printed material comprising a railway route chart including a station indication indicated by at least one of a predetermined symbol and a predetermined pattern, and a railway route indication disposed between the station indications and indicated by at least one of a predetermined symbol and a predetermined pattern, and the optically readable coded image printed on either one of the station indication and the railway route indication and obtained by coding and processing either one of station ID information for specifying a station and railway route ID information for specifying a railway route;
reproducing either one of the station ID information and the railway route ID information from the read coded image;
searching information about either one of the station and the railway route corresponding to either one of the reproduced station ID information and the reproduced railway route ID information from the information resource in which the information about a plurality of stations or the railway route is stored; and
outputting the information about either one of the searched station and the searched railway route.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information presentation system comprising:
a reader for optically reading a coded image from a printed material comprising a railway route chart including a station indication indicated by at least one of a predetermined symbol and a predetermined pattern, and a railway route indication disposed between the station indications and indicated by at least one of a predetermined symbol and a predetermined pattern, and the optically readable coded image printed on either one of the station indication and the railway route indication and obtained by coding and processing either one of station ID information for specifying a station and railway route ID information for specifying a railway route;
a reproducer for reproducing either one of the station ID information and the railway route ID information from the coded image read by the reader;
an information resource for storing information about a plurality of stations and the railway route;
a searcher for searching information about either one of the station and the railway route corresponding to either one of the station ID information and the railway route ID information reproduced by the reproducer from the information resource; and
an output section for outputting the information about the station and the railway route searched by the searcher.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information resource comprising:
a searcher for searching information about either one of a station and a railway route corresponding to either one of station ID information and railway route ID information from information about a plurality of stations and the railway route, when a reading apparatus optically reads a coded image from a printed material comprising a railway route chart including a station indication indicated by at least one of a predetermined symbol and a predetermined pattern, and a railway route indication disposed between the station indications and indicated by at least one of a predetermined symbol and a predetermined pattern, and the optically readable coded image printed on either one of the station indication and the railway route indication and obtained by coding and processing either one of the station ID information for specifying the station and the railway route ID information for specifying the railway route, and either one of the station ID information and the railway route ID information is reproduced from the read coded image; and
an output section for outputting the searched information about either one of the station and the railway route.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a ticket issuing method comprising steps of:
optically reading a coded image by a reading apparatus from a printed material comprising a railway route chart including a station indication indicated by at least one of a predetermined symbol and a predetermined pattern, and a railway route indication disposed between the station indications and indicated by at least one of a predetermined symbol and a predetermined pattern, and the optically readable coded image printed on either one of the station indication and the railway route indication and obtained by coding and processing either one of station ID information for specifying a station and railway route ID information for specifying a railway route;
reproducing either one of the station ID information and the railway route ID information from the read coded image; and
issuing a train ticket based on information about either one of the station an the railway route corresponding to either one of the reproduced station ID information and the reproduced railway route ID information.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.